Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

Damn Good Education Daily

How Refreshing, Honest, and Courageous It Would Be for Policymakers and Funders To Say Oops!

larrycuban.wordpress.com - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and top policymakers have promoted and funded small urban high schools for nearly a decade. Then Bill Gates said in his 2009 Annual Letter that while these sma...

Larryferlazzo

What I Learned in 2010 - Bridging Differences

blogs.edweek.org - Dear Deborah,As 2010 draws to a close, I must tell you that this was probably the most amazing and wonderful year of my life. I spent the previous three years writing a book, and I had no idea how ...

DianeRavitch

Inside The Times

latimes.com - Science teacher Jennifer Burman instructs her class at Edwin Markham Middle School, where test scores have markedly improved. (Christina House, For The Times / December 12, 2010) By Jason Felch, Ja...

leoniehaimson

Federal Education Budget Project | NewAmerica.net

edmoney.newamerica.net - Last week Democratic leaders in the Senate proposed and then retracted an omnibus appropriations bill that would have funded all federal education programs subject to the annual appropriations proc...

DianeRavitch

The Principal Difference: A School Leadership Blog by Mel Riddile: PISA: It's Poverty Not Stupid

nasspblogs.org - "There are three kinds of lies; lies, damn lies, and statistics."--Mark Twain The release of the 2009 PISA results this past week has created quite a stir and has provided ample fodder for public s...

DianeRavitch

My American Story

The My American Story Public Service Campaign features volunteers telling us --in their own words-- how service has changed their lives and strengthened their communities. What's your story? For more information on how to upload a video response, please visit http://www.serve.gov/myamericanstory_...

Why China excels — Joanne Jacobs

Why China excels — Joanne Jacobs

Why China excels

DECEMBER 23, 2010 BY JOANNE LEAVE A COMMENT

Shanghai;s 15-year-old students are way better than the rest of the world in reading, science and, especially math, notes Education Gadfly’s Amber M. Winkler, looking at the latest PISA results. “In math, they scored nearly a full standard deviation above the OECD average.” And it’s not just rote learning: PISA asks students to apply knowledge to real-world problems.

As an authoritarian regime, China “can force educational change in ways that are unthinkable in democracies,” Winkler writes. Still, “despite our vastly different governments and cultures, there may yet be a few lessons that America can learn

Universities could save £3bn by outsourcing, says thinktank - EducationNews.org

Web's #1 Source for K12 and Higher Education News and Commentary - EducationNews.org

Universities could save £3bn by outsourcing, says thinktank Policy Exchange report suggests privatisation of services could save 30% of the £9bn spent on goods and services each year Education disappointed by net-neutrality 'loopholes' Rules meant to prevent internet service providers from discriminating against online content might not be the safeguard that schools and colleges were hoping for, as net-neutrality supporters believe the Federal Communication Commission's new policy might lead to "bidding wars" that could leave smaller campuses without access to a high-speed web connection. ... With Common Application, Many Find a Technical Difficulty in Common, Too JACQUES STEINBERG - The Common Application, the admission form accepted by more than 400 colleges and universities, was created in part to ease the burden on high school seniors. No longer must applicants fill out a dozen different forms to apply to a dozen schools, including the nation's most selective. ... Congress approves weird definition of 'highly qualified' teachers So they've gone ahead and done it. U.S. legislators have passed legislation that includes a provision that will turn into law a definition of a "highly qualified" teachers that would include people with only a few weeks of training. ... Permission to Pledge? School Requires It The principal of a public school in Brookline, Mass., is asking parents to fill out permission slips before their kids can participate in the weekly recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, raising concern among some parents who say it's 'uncomfortable' ... Students punished for distributing candy canes... "They said the candy canes are weapons because you can sharpen them with your mouth and stab people with them." He said neither he nor any of their friend did that. ... CITY SCHOOLS TO BE 'SWEET FREE' ZONES... The St. Paul school district will make all public schools "sweet-free zones" by the end of the school year. ...

Commentaries

An Interview with Jason Ross: The Bill of Rights Michael F. Shaughnessy - Bill of Rights Day became a federal observance in 1941 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 1941 marked the It was the 150th anniversary of the ratification of those first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, amendments that spelled out our freedoms as well as our rights. An Interview with Maud van Thiel and Noks Nauta: Gifted and Talented Adult Foundation Michael F. Shaughnessy - Our mission is to improve the climate of life of gifted and talented adults with the aim to get their talents flourish optimally and be as happy as possible. The IHBV wants - in a sparkling and colourful way - to put giftedness positively on the map, to take away prejudices and to collect and share knowledge on gifted adults Small Ball: Small Teaching Robert McNergney - He asked excitedly after class if I had read Michael Lewis's baseball classic Moneyball-the story of the Oakland A's, their manager Billy Beane, and the dawn of "small ball." The curious doctoral student was convinced that what I had said about teaching and learning could best be understood by Lewis's view of baseball

Cutting education for high-speed rail | San Francisco Examiner

Cutting education for high-speed rail | San Francisco Examiner

Cutting education for high-speed rail

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• 2010
• December 23
• letters to the editor
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12/22/10 9:00 PM

California has a spending problem. And how California allocates state taxpayer dollars speaks volumes to our priorities as a society and our morals.

Contrast this: California spending $4.5 billion in taxpayer dollars to lay 54 miles of high-speed rail tracks between two tiny cities of Borden and Corcoran (total population 25,000), nonoperational without trains or electrification; or Gov.-elect Jerry Brown being “forced” to make hugely draconian cuts to education for our children and teachers. Brown’s statement to teachers: “Fasten your seat belts!” But the University of California system already raised student tuition 62 percent over three years (with more increases coming), school classrooms are crowded beyond capacity and California already ranks 49th worst in education in the U.S.!

Only a morally bankrupt society and state would waste more than $100 billion in taxpayer dollars on a “Train to Nowhere” by cutting basic educational materials and resources to children. Support Rep. Jerry Lewis’ House Resolution 6403 (American Recovery and Reinvestment Rescission Act)

Read more at the San Francisco Examiner: http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/letters-editor/2010/12/cutting-education-high-speed-rail#ixzz18wQ5IK8m

Want more say over UC? Pay up - latimes.com

Want more say over UC? Pay up - latimes.com

Want more say over UC? Pay up

The lawmakers outraged over tuition hikes are partly responsible for them by presiding over a sustained decline in public support for higher education.

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By Gary Fethke and Andrew Policano

December 22, 2010, 2:34 p.m.

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As The Times notes in its Dec. 17 editorial, California legislators -- who increased state funding to the University of California system this year in exchange for greater control over finances -- are incredulous over the university's recent tuition increases. Their outrage is ill-informed.

While they complain about rising costs, they fail to recognize that what has changed dramatically is not the cost of higher education but rather who pays -- the student or the taxpayer. Some realities:

KIRK: Does L.A. mayor finally see the light?

KIRK: Does L.A. mayor finally see the light?

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By RICHARD KIRK | Posted: Thursday, December 23, 2010 12:00 am | No Comments Posted | Print

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An unexpected Christmas present for California's schoolchildren came two weeks early when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in an address to state leaders, declared the union leadership of United Teachers of Los Angeles an "unwavering roadblock to reform."

The mayor acknowledged that his own career included stints as a legislative advocate for the California Teachers Association and as a union organizer for UTLA. Yet facing schools that have become, in the mayor's words, "dropout factories" composed mostly of Latino and black students, Villaraigosa grew a spine that probably signals his belief that more political mileage can be derived from shifting his allegiance away from teachers unions and toward students and their disenchanted parents.

While the mayor mentioned the predictable liberal litany of things that harm California's public education